Cultural Responsiveness and Motivation in Preparing Teachers

Motivation to teach is essential to educating all children in the public schools. This study examined the anticipated self-determination of pre-service teachers to teach in classroom settings that varied in the ethnic and racial composition of the students in the classes. Additionally the cultural responsiveness of participants was measured to examine whether high/low cultural responsiveness interacted with the specific contexts given. The research findings revealed that both cultural responsiveness and the scenarios related to prospective teacher anticipated motivation for working with specific groups of students. Additionally, data indicated that pre-service teachers were not significantly and positively developing their cultural responsiveness understanding during teacher preparation. This study also provided interesting stereotypical beliefs that supported the quantitative findings.